Financial Statements Demystified
April 28, 2026 | 1-3 pm ET | 10 am – 12 pm PT | Zoom
This workshop is presented in partnership with Generator.
Overview
Financial statements are among the most important tools an arts organization has, yet for many leaders, they remain difficult to interpret. With a sense of humour and a solid grounding in finance, we’ll demystify them together. No accounting background is required!
This workshop walks participants through the two core financial documents:
- The statement of financial position (balance sheet)
- The statement of operations (income statement)
Together, these documents tell the story of an organization’s financial health and knowing how to read them is essential for good decision-making, accountability, and donor and funder confidence.
Participants will also learn how financial statements are prepared, from internal management reports through to externally prepared statements, review engagements, and full audits, and what each level of oversight means for their organization.
The workshop is led by Kristina Lemieux, an experienced finance and operations professional with deep roots in the Canadian arts sector. In a live demonstration, Kristina will review and deconstruct financial statements from organizations she has never seen before, showing participants how much a set of financials can reveal about an organization’s priorities, resilience, and stewardship of resources.
Who Should Attend
Executive and managing directors, artistic directors, board members, and staff at Canadian non-profit arts organizations.
Key Takeaways
- Identify the key components of a non-profit financial statement.
- Understand the difference between internally prepared, reviewed, and audited financial statements, and when each might be required.
- Understand what surplus, deficit, and fund accounting mean in practice.
- Ask stronger, more informed questions of finance staff, auditors, and board members.
Important Note
Our workshops are intended to provide general information and strategies and do not offer personalized advice. The expert may not be able to answer all the questions from participants.
Accessibility
ASL interpretation, closed captions, and translated captions (35 languages) are available. If you require additional accommodations to make this event accessible for you, please get in touch, and we will do our best to meet your needs.
Recording
This event will be recorded. The link to the replay will be provided to all who sign up.
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Facilitator Bio
Kristina Lemieux (she/her) is a financial and operational leader with over two decades of experience across some of Canada’s most demanding and diverse sectors — arts, nonprofits, start-ups, and renewable energy.
She has a track record of building financial infrastructure from the ground up, steering organizations through growth and uncertainty, and making complex operations run cleanly — including in project-based and field-driven environments where budgets, timelines, and boots-on-the-ground realities have to align. The sectors change; the discipline doesn’t.
Generator is a mentoring, teaching, and innovation incubator that expands the skills, tools, and competencies of independent artists, producers and leaders. From intensive programs to online tools, Generator is transforming the role of the artist-producer one artist at a time.
Their vision is a world filled with interdependent, resilient, joyful creative communities, where everyone has access to art-making on their own terms.
Generator’s mission is to shape the performing arts sector to be sustainable, healthy, accessible, indispensable, and joyful, through the lens of producing. They nurture thought and practice through the provision of low-barrier, accessible programming and resources, participatory research projects, and community spaces. They support arts workers to understand the sector, to be active agents in shaping the sector, to work relationally, and to be intentional with their goals and processes.
